Guatemala Kite Festival Tour, every year in Guatemala on November 1st in the village of Sumpango a Guatemala Kite Festival Tour takes place during the massive festival to celebrate Day of the Dead, also known as All Saints Day or Dias de los Muertos.
The festival features big colorful kites, called barilletas gigantes, and they are truly works of art that are a blend of tradition and color. Many of these kites take months to make and are crafted entirely from tissue paper that is adhered to a massive bamboo frame. The giant kites, with diameters ranging between 24 and 30 meters, have themes that feature messages of culture, faith, love, folklore, unity, and social issues.
Guatemala Kite Festival Tour
Strong winds which blow in the end of October give rise to the wind and set the perfect conditions for a magnificent Guatemala Kite Festival. The elaborately colored masterpieces soar in the wind where kite teams from different villages do battle in the skies competing for prizes for the most beautiful kite, largest kite, smallest kite, the kite that stays airborne the longest, and best design. The giant kites, the crowd cheering, and the hoopla surrounding the event are truly a sight to behold.
Along with the giant kites, many people take their homemade kites to the nearby Sumpango cemetery, where families gather dressed in colorful clothes to decorate the grave-sites of their loved ones with flowers, petals, candles, fruit, and pine needles and send their small kites soaring towards the sky.
This day is truly a happy celebration of the beauty and mystery of life and death and provides families the opportunity to remember, honor, and reconnect with the spirits of their loved ones.
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Guatemala Kite Festival Tour
Families picnic in the cemeteries bringing food, in most cases Fiambre, and share a meal together with their family, relatives, and dearly departed. Most families have their own unique recipe for Fiambre which has been passed down from generation to generation.
I’ve often heard Fiambre described as a cold salad, which in my opinion does not even begin to do justice to the dish. My description of Fiambre is that it is an act of love, a work of art, and an incredible treat for your taste buds.
Fiambre is a traditional and special Guatemalan dish that is prepared and eaten once a year to celebrate the Day of the Dead. It’s a complex dish that typically is made with an average of 50 ingredients known to include cured meats, shrimp, pork, chicken, salami, cold cuts, sardines, ham, and sausages. Along with pickled vegetables, pickled onions, cheese, olives, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, carrots, chickpeas, corn, peas, red beans, white beans, parsley, fresh herbs, pimientos, lettuce, asparagus, brussell sprouts, and the list goes on and on.
And for this foodie, I can say that Fiambre is one of my favorite Guatemala dishes and something I look forward to every year.
Guatemala Kite Festival Tour
And of course no festival would be complete without an assortment of vendors lining the streets and surrounding the festival area selling local tipico food. The food smells and tastes incredible. Here is a small sampling to wet your taste buds—tamales, grilled meats such as fish, chicken, and pork, chiles rellenos, tostados, tacos, elote, churrasco, ceviche, Guatemalan candy— and much more. It’s a foodie paradise.
About Lake Atitlan Tours
We started our tour company with the belief that other travelers share our desire to experience authentic adventures by immersing ourselves in the life of a region, exploring hidden corners, and partaking and appreciating local culture. Our tours are, at their heart, a way of connecting more authentically with the world.
It truly is the extra touches that make our tours special in that they give you unique opportunities to experience first-hand some of the great traditional aspects of Guatemala highland life and culture.
We offer you tours of Lake Atitlan that you’ll never forget!
RELATED ARTICLE: Guatemala Kite Festival Tour
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